Dann's Delight At Dover Double

4 January 2015

Two goal hero Scott Dann was pleased to be able to get on the scoresheet to help his side overcome the challenge of Dover Athletic in the FA Cup, but admits he wishes he had scored more than his brace.

The defender netted twice before half-time to give Palace a healthy half-time advantage at the Crabble Athletic Ground, and had two further chances to put the tie to bed and register an unlikely hat-trick before goals from Dwight Gayle and Kevin Doyle secured a fourth round spot with a 4-0 win.

However the centre-back was impressed with his side’s professionalism against the Conference side, as well as their hunger to score goals as well as keep them out.

Post-match he said: “We’re delighted with the performance, coming here we knew it was going to be tough as you know what the FA Cup is like for springing up surprises but the way we went about it today, especially the attitude and the way we played, I think we thoroughly deserved it.

“It’s really nice to get a couple of goals and help the team out, and I should chip in with a few more goals from set plays, and to be honest I could have had a few more.

“When you go 2-0 up the next goal is the big one as if they get it they’re back in the game but we stuck at it and kept to our job and Gayley got the third and it was game over then.”

The match was Alan Pardew’s first as Eagles manager after his appointment was confirmed 24 hours earlier, and Dann feels that this result - Palace’s first win since November’s victory against Liverpool - coupled with a new boss could be the catalyst needed to pull themselves away from the relegation zone.

“A new manager coming into the club has given everybody a lift and I think that was shown today in the way we played,” he added. “We passed the ball around today and that is a big plus for us going back into the Premier League next weekend.

“Transferring this into league form is the main aim. We’ve come here in the FA Cup and put on a good performance in the manager’s first game so it’s now up to the lads to make sure we take that kind of performance into the league because we need to start winning quickly but looking at today’s performance we’re going about it the right way.”